Automotive Marketing Agencies and Used Car Dealerships Equal Success

Have you ever considered the benefits of working with a full-service marketing agency that specializes in automotive marketing? Many independent dealerships struggle with deciding whether or not to rely on their in-house marketing folks or going with an agency. It’s a good question, and there are several factors to consider when making marketing decisions for your dealership.
In our experience in working with multiple dealerships, we’ve determined that there are six core benefits for partnering with an agency.

Automotive Marketing Agency Expertise

A marketing agency employs marketing experts across multiple marketing channels. The channels can include graphic design, copywriting, social media management, search engine marketing and more. Working with a marketing agency gives the dealership access to multiple individuals who are experts in automotive marketing. It’s also interesting to note that over 68% of in-house teams partner with external marketing agencies to get the best results for the dealership. Partnering with an agency allows your in-house team to focus on what they do best and for the agency to provide expertise in areas that may need more specialized consultations.

Cost

Automotive marketing agencies specialize in working with dealerships and are dedicated to making sure that your dealership has the best information on marketing trends within the automotive industry. They understand your needs as a dealership and can provide solutions for many common problems that dealerships face. Also, these marketing professionals spend a significant amount of time making sure that they understand what is going on in the automotive industry and often have access to data sets specifically geared towards your target market resulting in a better understanding of your customers and how best to reach them.

The average salary for a marketing manager in the United States is $64,246 according to Indeed.com. For the same investment, an independent dealership can partner with an agency and have access to 6-8 automotive marketing specialists that know your industry and how to reach your customers. Plus, you don’t have to worry about payroll costs or the operational side of the marketing agency. Working with an agency allows you to focus on running your dealership and the marketing team to focus on generating leads to increase your monthly sales volume.

Results and Responsibilities

The best automotive marketing agencies are results driven. For independent dealerships, these key performance indicators include the number of leads generated, the brand reach in the market area, and the amount of online engagement with auto intenders; potential customers that are looking to purchase within a specific amount of time. Agencies take the time to review the results of each campaign and make recommendations to the dealership on how to improve outcomes for the next campaign.

Expanded Network and Access to Advanced Marketing Tools

Most agencies have access to more extensive networks of service providers including broadcast networks, automotive listing companies, and more. Agencies also have access to data sets in the automotive industry and tools focusing on display advertising, social media management, SEO/SEM, email marketing, rewards programs, equity mining, and OTT advertising through streaming devices. Automotive marketing agencies invest in new marketing tools that are specifically built to benefit used-car dealerships. Agencies also spend a significant amount of time and resources in making sure that their team stays on top of the latest trends in the automotive industry.

Stability

Car dealerships are known for high turnover rates, and when working with an in-house team, the creative department starts to get stagnant and often tell us that they have already tried everything. Successful campaigns consider the lessons learned in previous campaigns. When employees leave a dealership, they take their knowledge of those lessons learned with them, leaving the dealership at a disadvantage for future marketing campaigns.

Replacing employees is a time-consuming process with the hiring process taking a minimum of 30 days to complete. It will be another 30 days before they are familiar enough with the dealership to be effective. Working with an agency will help your dealership to maintain momentum with marketing campaigns since they already have that institutional knowledge and can apply that knowledge to future campaigns without delay which guarantees better results in the long term.

Outside Perspective

Your marketing agency partner isn’t involved in the day to day running of your business and believe it or not; this is a benefit to your dealership. Agencies are experts in their industries and provide dealerships with outside perspectives on what is working and what needs fine-tuning. Automotive marketing agencies share “best practices” vetted through other dealerships similar to yours.

In conclusion, there are many benefits to working with an agency. Agencies are a cost-effective way of marketing your dealership. They provide reliability and can be instrumental in helping dealerships to set clear, relevant marketing objectives that are aligned with reaching the goals you’ve set for your dealership.